Pracujesz na umowie śmieciowej? Możemy pomóc!
On March 31, 2012, the ZSP-IWA will organize a demonstration in Warsaw against social cuts in areas such as day care, refunds for prescription drugs, social benefits to families, public health care, higher education, public housing and transport.
Towards the end of the year, the government announced plans to introduce even more drastic austerity measures, on the recommendation of international institutions such as the IMF. Working people have already been massively hit by all sorts of cuts and the commercialization and privatization of many social services. This has all cut financing from the public sector, adding additional costs for the use of basic services such as health care and education, making them unaccessible for large portions of society.
On January 20 a picket was held at Roche Poland concerning the dismissal of our colleague and the situation regarding employment practices in the firm in general.
Short-term work, fictitious self-employment and general precarity despite the huge wealth of the multinational. The firm would like to have workers who are "not workers" - who can be gotten rid of at any time, without any compensation or any reason. The fictitious self-employed also do not get benefits such as paid vacation, maternity leave and even do not have their social security paid. Our colleague is fighting to be reinstated to work and claims that his lack of employment status was a fiction.
On January 16, the ZSP held another picket in solidarity with the strikers from Eulen-ABB in Cordoba who began an indefinite strike on November 28, 2011. The workers have been replaced by new ones from Adecco, who play the role of strike breaker in this conflict and which in general plays the role of providing staff for business which they can dispose of any time.
All of the striking workers have been fired by Eulen, the company they were outsourced from. The workers are demanding that they be given permanent contracts in ABB or at least are given the jobs that have been outsourced to Adecco.
Having learnt of the dismissal of all the striking workers from the ABB factory in Cordoba, ZSP decided to make a solidarity action the next day. This time we went to the headquarters of Adecco temp agency in Poland, to denounce their role in undermining the workers' struggle. Adecco replaced the old Eulen staff at the ABB factory.
We informed Adecco about why we came and handed out leaflets informing about the conflict in Spain and also criticizing the role of temporary work agencies in the decline of working conditions.
Since some foreigners work in that and some neighbouring buildings, we also produced an English-language version of the leaflet: http://www.zsp.net.pl/adecco-leaflet
On December 19, Roche Poland (the pharmaceuticals company) dismissed an activist of the ZSP without any reason. The orders came directly from corporate headquarters and he was asked to leave immediately. The company refused to give any reason in writing or any other documents.
The dismissal came on the first day after a large article with the comrade appeared in the main newspaper. Although no real reason was given, it is largely felt that this decision was related to his work in the union.
The ZSP protested the slaughter in Kazakhstan in front of the embassy in Warsaw. We strongly condemn the state violence against the people, starting with authorities trying to clean the strike of protesting workers, and advocate social revolution to get rid of the bosses and tyrants.
Just slightly a week after the anniversary of the imposition of martial law in Poland, we made the comparison of how these two states dealt with social unrest by cold blooded murder and repression.
We condemn the imposition of martial law in Kazakhstan and support all those resisting it!
Finally we hope that people will make the struggle against the authoritarian, nepotistic and corrupt government of Kazakhstan also into a struggle against the state and capital in general. Because capitalism is as great a tyranny as any other.
ZSP continues to inform the public about the case of Karol M., who is still in a coma after an accident at work and warn them about the work agency "Jerzy Madziarowicz- MIX". The boss of the agency, which hires people for construction work, claimed that Karol was not even working for him after the accident happened. Karol, who was working without an proper safety equipment, was left in a coma, without insurance. The agency claims that it has absolutely no responsibility.
Unfortunately we cannot seem to locate Madziarowicz. On Saturday morning we went to his house with a picket but we still have not found him. There we encountered a young woman (daughter?) who called the police on us because we taped a leaflet to the house. We had an interesting discussion with the police how it is that they came so quickly to intervene because we taped a leaflet while they did practically nothing when Karol's distressed family went to them about the accident, lack of proper building safety, failure to report the accident, etc. etc. We were warned not to "harass" anybody.
While leafleting nearby we encountered other construction workers without the proper safety equipment and we had some conversations. Typically these are poor people from towns where there is no work, looking for any job they can get. And we found out that some also had problems with payment. We pointed out that what happened with Karol can happen with anyone, so better get organized.
ZSP took part in the Day of Action in support of the strikers of EULEN-ABB. . We held an informational picket at the Polish headquarters of ABB. There we delivered a letter and gave out leaflets in the headquarters, out front and on the street. We spoke through the megaphone and people came out of the building or opened their windows to hear. The children from the nearby school also did the same. We spoke not only about the strike in Spain, but the problems of subcontracted workers in general. (And we recommend the security guards from Impel who tried to interfere would better read our articles about working conditions in that firm and the many comments of their co-workers who responded.)
The CNT EULEN-ABB workers called for action on the 15th of December. On this date, about 450 people demonstrated in Cordoba in support of the strikers.
The CNT is also collecting money for the strike fund. For bank details, write to us (is-at-zsp.net.pl) or to the CNT (exteriores-at-cnt.es).
We will try to update information about the strike in the "IWA News" section of this page.
Last week the Okrzejówki Brigades were formed, in response to the growing number of arson attacks in the Praga district of Warsaw. These have included attacks on people who decided to fight against their evictions or have been part of the Tenants' Defense Committee. We refuse to let the speculators and landlords terrorize people and we decided to take matters into our own hands!
Besides the ZSP, some members of the Committee and other people from the neighbourhood are patrolling every night. The slogan of the brigades, which will do more than just patrol, is "Self-defense and mutual aid".
There have been at least 55 fires in the immediate vicinity of our office over the past year. The area is to be gentrified and the city would like to get rid of as many tenants as possible. More information about the fires, protests and the brigades, along with photos, can be found on the ZSP Warsaw blog in English. www.zspwawa.blogspot.com.
On Dec. 14, ZSP held an informational action at a shopping mall in Warsaw to draw attention to the working conditions in FF Mercantil factory in Brazil and to the case of Icaro Polleto from the COB-AIT, who was due in court on the same day.
Icaro was working at FF Mercantil, a sweatshop which produces mainly for the LOTTO and FINTA brands sport clothing. He was involved in trying to organize there. Workers were demanding a five-hour work week, 8-hour day, air conditioning and ventilation, extra pay for working in hazardous conditions and the right to organize.
